Day 92 | Fields of Gold - Camp at km 978

13 January 2023 | 21°C

My knee and right leg hurt and keep me from sleeping at night. I start crying as I don’t know what to do. Should I turn around to Boyle and take a few rest days? How many? Will the pain not come back then? Do I need to leave the trail?

I fall back to sleep again eventually and waking up I am still undecided. I think about all the hikers that take pain killers for several days, something I tend not to do but why not try it out? It’s a bit risky I feel with a bigger stretch and two major passes coming up but in decide to give it a try by taking two ibuprofen with my breakfast.

This is the point of no return. If I continue I have to walk through. I still feel the pain for about an hour when I start walking but then I am pain free. It’s easy walking today with just a tiny almost unnoticeable pass. We meet some common faces today.

First of all, a Korean guy we nicknamed Pinnacle, after meeting him for the first time close to a rock formation called “The Pinnacles” about a week ago. He is section hiking in the area and we have been bumping into him several times now.

Later in the day, “The Fishermen” how we call them cross our way, two young German brothers we already had met on the north island. It was the start of walking through the dry grassy meadows of the Nelson lakes area today and at the end of the day we pitch our tent in exactly these “fields of gold”.